Off-Campus is a well-known college hockey romance series by Elle Kennedy. The series focuses on the friendships, love stories, sex lives, hardships, and found family of four college hockey players, Garrett Graham, John Logan, Dean Di-Laurentis, and John Tucker, who attend Briar University and live together in a house off campus. The first book in the series, The Deal, is the #1 best hockey romance book on Goodreads. The series was also well known on “book-tok”. Each book focuses on one of their love stories. The first book in the series, The Deal, was released in 2015 along with the second book, The Mistake, and the last two books, The Score and The Goal, were released in 2016.
The Deal is about Garrett and Hannah. Hannah’s a music major. They meet in ethics class and bump into each other, which is when he finds out she passed their midterm, which he didn’t. He’s at risk of being kicked off the team, so he convinces her to tutor him for the makeup exam, and they strike a deal and fake date to make her crush, Justin Kohl, jealous. The catch is her and Garrett end up falling for each other. It’s filled with cute, angsty, and intense moments as well. Their tropes are annoyances to friends-to-lovers and fake dating. If you loved To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, but are looking for something steamier, then you’ll love Hannah and Garrett.
The Mistake is about John Logan and Grace Ivers. Grace is shy and works at their university radio station. Their main trope is second-chance romance, and there’s lots of groveling. The Score is about Dean Di-Laurentis and Allie Hayes, an acting major who is Hannah’s best friend and roommate. Their tropes are frenemies to lovers, friends with benefits, and fake dating. They’re known for being the steamiest ship in the series. Lastly, The Goal is about John Tucker and Sabrina James; she was a political science major at Briar and went to Harvard for law school. Their tropes are unexpected pregnancy and slow burn. (Keep in mind, there are some heavy topics mentioned in The Deal, such as previous sexual assault and abuse, and in The Mistake, there are mentions of alcoholism.)
The TV Series Adaptation
The television show for the series was announced by Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 1, 2024. The casting was announced on May 6, 2025. They filmed through 2025, and the first teaser was released on March 19. They’ve also announced the show’s release date in the same post, which will be May 13, 2026. The actors for the series are Belmont Cameli, who’s playing Garrett, Antonio Cipriano, who’s playing John Logan, Stephen Kalyn is playing Dean Di-Laurentis, and Jalen Thomas Brooks is playing John Tucker. You may know Jalen Thomas Brooks from The Pitt as the character Mateo Diaz. Justin Kohl is being played by Josh Heuston, who you may have seen in Heartbreak High as the character Dusty. Hannah and Allie are being played by the actresses Ella Bright and Mika Abdalla, who you may know as McKayla McAlister from Project mc2. The actresses for Grace and Sabrina have yet to be announced.
There are some changes that have been made to the show, such as Justin Kohl being a part of a band rather than on the football team like he is in the books. They also aged Dean up when originally; Tucker was the oldest in the series. There were also some mixed feelings when the casting was first announced. I understood other fans’ initial frustrations as I felt them as well. The casting wasn’t what me, and many others originally envisioned for the characters we read. I think fans expected a similar look to the fancasts that have been around for years, such as the fancast for Hannah and Garrett which were Gracie Abrams and Nick Kent in many Instagram edits and on Pinterest. It’s common for TV show and movie adaptations to not fully meet the original expectations that fans had because nothing can replicate the books verbatim. However, the show is a continuation of books just in a different form of media.
Fans also found the the age gap between the characters playing Hannah and Garrett to be odd, especially considering the intense scenes. The actor playing Hannah was 18 at the time of filming while the actor playing Garrett was 27. Others were upset that Tucker isn’t a red head, Allie isn’t blonde and Logan doesn’t have blue eyes like they do in the books.
Personally, I don’t care much about these physical attributes. I feel like the most important thing is that the actors bring the vibe of the characters to life and have the same style. From the photos and teasers that have been released, it seems that they’ve changed the style for the characters, such as hairstyles and clothing. While it’s not what I envisioned for their style while reading the books, I think the actors already have amazing chemistry from what I’ve seen of them at red carpet events, and I think they will bring the vibe of the characters to life. Despite the differences that have been made, fans are still looking forward to the show.
I read the first book, The Deal, my junior year of high school, and I’ve loved the series ever since. It’s my favorite book series because of the found family dynamics and lasting love. The Deal is my favorite book in the series, but I love them all. I’ve been wanting a show for the series for years, so I’m happy that there’s finally going to be one and despite some things being changed between the book and show, I’m still excited for the release.
The official trailer was released April 23 and has raised fans’ excitement for the release on May 13. There was an easter egg from 1:42-1:43 of the trailer where Dean was looking at Allie and fans are suspecting that season two will be their season. I hope it’s true!
Elle Kennedy also released an epilogue book The Legacy in 2021 about the characters and their futures. In 2023, she released her first next-gen book, The Graham Effect which is about Hannah and Garrett’s twin daughter, Gigi, who’s also a hockey player. In addition, Kennedy released a book this year titled Love Story about Gigi’s twin brother and his love story with Logan and Grace’s daughter, Blake. The book also features Dean and Allies children and Tucker and Sabrinas daughters.
Whether you’re looking for a new book series or television show, with found family and romance, Off-Campus offers both. But, I highly recommend reading the books first before watching the show if you choose to tune in!